The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-08
SANDWICHES TWO KINGS.
HIS MAJESTY KALAKAUA AND
CLAUS SPRECKELS, HIS FRIEND.

HIS MAJESTY KALAKAUA AND
CLAUS SPRECKELS, HIS FRIEND.
HOW the Advancing Ambitions of the
coffee-Colored Monarch Were Graft
fed by the Ruler of the Sugar Bar
re,s-A Cabinet Created from Mem
nars of the San Francisco Bohemian
Club-spreckels Finally Supplanted
bva Business Rival.
From the Chicago Ne,os.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, April 30.-Since
the arrival in this city of her Majesty Queen
Kapiolani she has been more than busy. A
couple of Hawaiian princelings who are at
tending California college near San Mateo
bod to he seen, the Bohemian Club had to
ba propitiated by royal visit the opening
NIGHT to the Art Association exhibition, q
sort of excrescence of the Bohemian Club.
Several kindergarten and benevolent aid
entertainments had to be assisted, SO that
the roval progress so far has been full of in
cident
The attitude of the Spreckels people to-
ward the royal party has been that of
naughty and chilling reserve. The gallant
Sir Claus Spreckels, much as he may like to
svenge the wrongs done his plethoric purse,
cannot afford to make active war on an old
woman. and a benevolent one at that so
that as far as the Spreckels people are con-
cerned Kapiolani and her suite met with no
stumbling blocks in California.
The Queens presence here however re-
wives the whole story of Spreckels' relations
with Hawaiian royalty, tale that is quite
entertaining, and could be told in full only
within the covers of a voluminous novel.
Some six years ago Claus Spreckels was
the uncrowned King of the Hawaiian
Islands. having obtained a monopoly of the
sugar business and controlled the Pacific
coast markets He built palaces for the
crowned King, planned European excur-
sions for his dusky majesty, and formed the
Cabinet and swayed the government to suit
his own purposes He was loosely referred
to in the public prints as King Claus, and
sometimes satirically alluded to as King
Sugar Barrel, but he kept on raking in the
ducats all the time and getting more planta
tions and sugar mills within his
grasp Kalakaua gave him no
trouble whatever. The alleged
descendant of Kamehameha was
an easy man to handle. His greatest neces-
sites were an ever-convenient $50 piece, an
artistic barkeeper, snowy suit of clothes,
and first-class band of hula-hula dancers.
All these were provided to his majesty, and
in addition palaces on plan never dreamed
of by his projenitors. But the ideas OF a
King of the Cannibal Islands expand like
those of other mortals, and when Kalakaua
returned from a tour of Europe he was
changed person. His taste for linen busters,
plug hats, and ornamented top boots had
gone and a latent passion to shine as a
genuine blood of the semi-English pattern
had been dangerously aroused. The Court
Il,
with new ideas of what belonged to royalty,
and when he again touched the volcanic soil
of Hawaii he was changed man. He ex-
acted a close observance of the outward
forms of Difference to established rank, and
resented the advances of plebianS with king
ly hauteW. When be snubbed the purser
of the old steamer Ajax by refusing TO join
in a game of pedro at the Royal Hawaiian
Hotel, one night society was amazed, but
the social strata were destined to be further
convulsed. Not long after he created an
immense sensation by declining the invita-
ton OF the Captain fthe steamship Wonga-
Wonga to join him in a morning cock
tail. Several incidents Of this kind finally
killed all hopes that his majesty was uuaf-
fected by the attention of European poten-
tateS and it has resolved to crafty his
new ambitions to eclipse the glories of
Northern thrones. A poet laureate was
specially imported for lis Majesty by
Spreckles as an experiment. the choice fall
ing on Charles Warren Stoddart, Of the San
francisco Bohemian Club, who had attained
some distinction as O contributor to Eastern
and Western magazines and journals. Stod-
cart proved great acquisition to the Court
of Hawaii, and soon added to the classics of
the country several fine poems on the Kings
yacht and the royal hula-hula dancing COM
blnation, with a number of chaste and
elegant sonnets on the snub-noses and
me Nandyke-brown compilations of
the favorite ladies-in-waiting. At this
ume glowing verses to the Queen were
not the correct thing in the Hawaiian Court,
as her majesty had become estranged from
her royal spouse by reason of his pronounced
ambition to rival Albert Edward of Eng
and. The importation of a poet laureate
worked so well that the willy King
Spreckes concluded to introduce court
historian, and after looking around found
the right man for the place in Editor
creighton, of the San Francisco Post, for
merly of the Auckland New Zealand) press,
and still more remotely of the FIJI Islands
and the Irish Times reportorial staff. Edi-
tor Creighton had not the poets eye for the
huia-huh dance, yachting made him seasick,
ana abslnthe cocktails ON an empty stomach
We're his special aversion. He was, therefore,
handicapped at the start, but he went to
WORK ana soon earned fame, prestige,
oiiu roy W laVof Dy his computation OF a DloS-
raphy OF Kalakaua. His majesty had long
rested under the cloud of "a suspicion with
regard to his lineal descent from the great
warrior Kalnehameha The newly-imported
court historian showed conclusively that the
me was perfect, and that the accidental
hKeness of the ruler of Hawaii TO the negro
cooDler who did service at the palace was a
mere innocent freak Of spoItive nature iii
the tropics. The gifted historian was
promptly promoted to the post of Secretary
OF Foreign Affairs and Che poet laureate
became q star of the second
magnitude iii comparison: The
scheme worked 50 well that Claus Spreckels
concluded to import some celebrities Tho
next cast of his drag-net among the intel
Iectual Tritons of the Bohemian Club en-
angled Joo Tilden the burst stock broker
ana Don tfrant, and Paul Newman, tai
enIed and highly educated but cratic Ger
I,lan lawyer. Paul had served in the Cali
lorna Legislature for one term, and made
suea notable record that the lodgings
MIltch he honored by his patronage have
9lnce been known as the Robbers Roost.
III the wake of Messrs. Tilden and New
mann mann followed several struggling and
naIIi-Starved artists, and the Bohemian
SSoiony in Hawaii became a large and
nourlshinS institution. 1t was next found
rrecesSaly to import a court journalist, and
s.al1